jewelry
Things I Fancy: February 21
For much of this week San Francisco finally had to confront “winter.” Here are a couple of items that struck my fancy this week and kept me happy during the past week of rain:
- I recently was introduced to The Jealous Curator and this introduction has lead to another lady blog crush. Her blog is a collection of work, that in her words makes you think “Damn, I wish I thought of that.” This week she featured Tara Donovan whose installations made of common objects like buttons, styrofoam cups, and paper plates makes me jealous.
- The last few months I’ve been collecting a little bit of handmade jewelry but I’ve not attempted to make anything. I think these little string and paperclip earrings might be the perfect first attempt. (via Craft).
- Another blog that I regularly visit for art inspiration is my love for you. This week, Meighan featured Uri Korn’s new website. I got lost in the images on the site.
- Of course, my week would not be complete without coveting some sweet treat. This weekend I whipped up a batch of whole wheat chocolate chip skillet cookies and they were fantastic. The skillet cookie is perfect for those days when you crave a cookie, but don’t want to deal with shaping individual cookies (i.e. really lazy days). I ate these all weekend while finishing up a lovely little novel, The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova.
Have you discovered anything this week that jumped out at you? Let me know below. I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration!
Shelly Kerry
Before meeting Shelly Kerry, of Em’s Studio, I don’t think I wore earrings for more than 10 years. But I love Shelly’s style (and it doesn’t hurt that she is a fantastic person) and over the course of getting to know her, I’ve learned more about her craft. This knowledge has made me appreciate the art of jewelry making and has translated into the beginnings of a handmade jewelry collection based on pieces by Shelly and other local artists.
©Shelly Kerry
Shelly grew up with really crafty women in her family and she can recall making projects with them during the summer months and vacations. Some of Shelly’s earliest memories are of spending days entertaining herself with a pencil and crayon, drawing and doodling on the floor of her living room.
She dabbled in many art forms before she fell in love with jewelry making. This love affair started when she realized that she could make jewelry better than a lot of the cheap pieces she was purchasing in chain stores. She learned by deconstructing pieces, taking them apart and figuring out how they were made. She then took questions to her jewelry maker friends and after taking a few classes, began selling pieces at local shows. For Shelly jewelry making satisfies her love of manipulating little things – twisting wires and playing with delicate pieces. Her style often leans towards big and raw, but there are always small, precious parts to each of her pieces. Her pieces often contain the juxtaposition of a raw, rough stone with a glitzy chain.
©Shelly Kerry
Shelly draws her inspiration from color and textures. Something as simple as the pattern on a dress or the color of an unknown plant are examples of items that have inspired a new line of pieces. She also takes 30 to 45 minutes each day to look through art and design blogs and magazines in order to get external inspiration. From personal experience, I am inspired regularly on Shelly’s ability to draw inspiration from the most unlikely places. She has the ability to keep her eyes and mind open to the possibility that anything could be inspirational. Another important aspect of being creative to Shelly is to live each day creatively, not tucking away things at 5 pm, but living every second of life as an opportunity to express yourself. She fosters this by surrounding herself with creative and supportive people and maintaining her home/studio in a visually and mentally stimulating way.
In addition to making beautiful jewelry she is one of the owners of Lightbox SF. Lightbox SF is designed to be a support system for emerging artists. They offer consulting services to these artists to assist them with things like marketing, public relations, social media, or line sheets. Their eventual goal is to create a workspace and gallery that will create a creative community for the resident artists. They also organize two art event series, The Crafty Hour and 200 Yards. The Crafty Hour is a combination of a craft show and happy hour, that features about a dozen artists who sale their wares right in the bar. While 200 Yards is a gallery show where all pieces have been created within 200 yards of the host location (yes, this is the upcoming show I am in).
Shelly is another fantastic creative person that I feel lucky to know and I hope you will take the time to investigate out her work.